


to feel the sky within my reach

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 21:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12197448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: When Johnno has a close call on a flying mission, it leads to an expected conclusion.





	to feel the sky within my reach

**Author's Note:**

> I am still loving my rewatch. And forever bitter about what they did to these two. 
> 
> Written for two challenges - The September Twistory challenge at 1_million_words, and the livejournal comm, whatif September "wartime AU"challenge.

Johnno was still rattled from the previous night's flying when he arrived back at base the next morning. Part of him felt ridiculous, like he should be used to it by now, after all, he'd been flying with the RAF for close to a year, had grown accustomed to their rules and regulations, to say nothing of the damp English weather and the strange food. He was used to going up against Jerries, used to dodging enemy fire, hearing explosions all around him as he gave as good as he got, and hopefully better. 

But last night had been closer than ever before. Too damn close if he was honest with himself. 

Report filed, he returned to his quarters, splashed cold water on his face and tried to sleep. Instead, he tossed and turned and turned and tossed and when he did manage to sleep, his dreams were full of blue skies and black smoke, the smell of acrid smoke clogging up his lungs as the plane nosedived crazily and the ground came up to meet him at dizzying speed. 

When he woke, he felt no more rested than he had when he'd first laid down, but a glance at the clock told him that the answer to his problems might not be as far away as all that. He was off duty tonight but he pulled on his uniform anyway - the accent sometimes got him curious looks while the uniform forestalled any questions, was an answer all by itself - and headed for the suburbs of London and a quiet terraced house that was suddenly the only place he wanted to be. 

Rowie's landlady, a formidable Aussie ex-pat and fellow Cooper's Crossing resident who actually remembered Rowie as a little girl, opened the door to him and her jaw dropped slightly when she saw him there. "Captain Johnson," she said and Johnno bit back a smile. No matter how many times he told her to call him Johnno, she persisted with his rank. "We weren't expecting company."

Johnno gave her his best charming smile, the one that usually had her eating out of his hand. "My apologies, Mrs Carnegie. I wasn't supposed to be off duty but..." He shifted on his feet, let her draw her own conclusions. Hopefully the correct ones. "Things changed. I didn't get a chance to let Rowie know-"

Whatever he was hinting at, the truth was darker than that and he didn't know if Violet saw in his face, or if Rowie had told her news from the hospital or if it was just the smile and the charm but she was suddenly stepping back to let him in. "Rowie's in the parlour," she said. "I'll show you in." 

Which wasn't quite in Johnno's plan because Violet took her role of chaperone and defender of Rowie's honour quite seriously. Nonetheless he followed her in, closing the door firmly behind him and by the time he reached the parlour, Rowie was already standing up from the sofa, placing her novel on the coffee table. Her eyes were wide as she looked at him, her expression caught somewhere between relief and fear and she stepped towards him, looking for all the world like she was going to throw herself into his arms but stopping with a glance in Violet's direction. 

The older lady cleared her throat. "Why don't I make you some tea?" she suggested, heading towards the kitchen and closing the parlour door behind her, something that he'd never seen her do before. 

Johnno's surprise was mirrored on Rowie's face, but only briefly, for as long as it took both of them to realise there was no point looking a gift horse in the mouth. 

Next thing Johnno knew, Rowie's arms were around his neck, her body pressed firmly against his, his arms around her waist pulling her tightly against him. He buried his face in her long hair left loose after a long shift in the hospital, and he breathed deep and slow and thanked his lucky stars that he was here to do this. 

She was the one who pulled back first, but only far enough to cup his face in her hands. "Are you ok?" she demanded. "We had some of your squadron in-" Her voice faltered and he realised the sights she must have seen, the faces she would have recognised from nights in the nearby pub, the names she would have heard from his lips. He knew that one of her worst nightmares was being called to tend to a patient and finding that it was him, and he knew that for her, like him, this mission had been too close for comfort. 

He wanted to tell her he was fine. 

He kissed her instead. 

He kissed her the way that he would never - could never - kiss her in front of Violet Carnegie, the way it was entirely improper to kiss someone when you weren't actually married to them. Not that that was something he usually cared overmuch about - as far as he was concerned, he and Rowie were married in all but name, they'd made their commitment to each other when he'd signed up for the RAF and travelled halfway around the world to fight in the war and she'd resigned her nurse's position to come to London too. They had discussed marriage briefly before they left Cooper's Crossing, both of them knowing that Father Jacko would perform the ceremony in a heartbeat if they'd only asked. But they'd agreed they didn't want to get married because of the war, because of the fear and uncertainty. They wanted to do it for the right reasons, they'd said. 

And standing in that tiny London parlour, Johnno wished he could go back in time and not be such a noble idiot. 

Because kissing her like that felt right, felt like coming home, felt like the war was a million miles away, and if the mere touch of her lips on his, their fully clothed bodies pressing against one another, made him feel that way, he could only imagine how much more powerful it would be if they were able to take that next step, if he could take her upstairs to her room, lay her down on the bed, cover her body with his and lose himself in her entirely. He wanted that, wanted it with a hunger that was powerful and he might have even lost control of his senses entirely and suggested it if he hadn't suddenly heard the overly loud sound of rattling teacups approaching the closed parlour door, followed by an overly loud, "Drat, I forgot the milk!" 

By the time the parlour door opened, he was seated at one end of the sofa, Rowie on the other, a tract of space between them large enough to accommodate two Violet Carnegies. He could feel that his cheeks were still flushed and he took great care to arrange himself carefully on the sofa, the better to hide his body's reaction to their kisses. Rowie's cheeks were pink too, her hair slightly more disheveled than it had been when he'd first entered, but not enough, he hoped, to cause any comment from Violet. 

Who, in a most un-Violet manner, placed the tea tray on the table and smiled at them. "I managed to make some sponge cake," she told them, pointing to the plate in the middle of the tray. "Only a small one, mind, but we do what we can with rationing." She looked over her shoulder. "I should check on something in the kitchen... I'll be back in a bit." 

Once again, she closed the door behind her as she left. 

Johnno turned an amazed look on Rowie. "Is there something I should know?" 

Rowie's face flamed scarlet. "It seems Violet is of the opinion that we're already engaged," she said. "Possibly secretly married, I'm not too sure." 

Johnno's jaw dropped but he wasn't going to question a miracle, not when it got the two of them some more time alone. "Well then, get over here," he said, lifting his arm in invitation and she grinned as she accepted it, scooting across the cushions and fitting herself to his side. His arm settled on her shoulder, his fingers tangling in her hair, while his other arm went around her waist. One of her hands slipped around his back as the other worried the buttons on his shirt and he found himself wishing once again that Violet wasn't just down the hall. "So," he asked, pushing the thought aside, "how many doctors did you make cry today?" 

Rowie snorted. "Only the rubbish ones," she told him. "Seriously... it baffles me how some of them get through medical school." It was a familiar refrain, one he'd heard from her before and having encountered some of the doctors she worked with, both personally and anecdotally, he wasn't inclined to disagree with her. 

"You'd make a great doctor," he told her and he meant it. She ducked her head, a small smile hovering around her lips and he could tell that she was flattered. He didn't have to be told that she agreed with him. "You ever think about retraining? After the war is over?"

Rowie shook her head. "Like they'd accept a woman." But her voice was wistful and he knew that, if it were possible, she'd do it in a heartbeat. "What about you?" she asked. "What do you want to do when the war is over?" 

Johnno drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, the familiar question that had taken on almost a game like quality for them suddenly having a far more serious meaning. He'd thought of that several times in the last couple of years living over here, but never as much as in the last few hours, after a hairy few moments where he'd thought it was all over for him. He didn't tell her that though, although from the look in her eyes, from the way her hands tightened in his shirt, he fancied she had a good enough idea. "Back to the RFDS, I suppose," he said. "Cooper's Crossing, hopefully. Finish doing up the homestead, that's if Nick hasn't totally wrecked it on me." He'd bought the place shortly before the war broke out, when rumblings of trouble in Europe were thought to be scaremongering at its finest, had seen himself and Rowie settling down there at some vague, undetermined point in the future. He hadn't got very far on the renovations before all hell had broken loose and he'd known he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't do something to help. What he'd thought would be a short lived thing had stretched into almost three years now and he'd almost given up dreaming about that life - the Rowie and Johnno who had left Cooper's Crossing were different to the people they were now, the people who had seen death and destruction and the fear and horror of war and in his darkest thoughts, Johnno sometimes worried that, happy as they were together now, it might all turn to ashes once the war was over and they were back home again. That was if they both survived it, and he didn't let himself go far down that path, usually.

Rowie hadn't brought up the subject of life after the war in many a long day either so it was a surprise that she'd done so now, even more of one when she flattened her hand over his heart and asked quietly, "And would you be living there alone?" 

Something shifted very slightly, but very significantly, in the air and for just a second, Johnno held his breath. Then he moved the hand that was around her waist, moved it up so it closed around her fingers. "I was hoping not to," he said honestly. "But you being a career woman and all that... I wasn't so sure you'd want to give that up." 

"Neither was I." Rowie wasn't looking at him, very intent on his hand holding hers. "But then today... all those boys... all names I knew, people I'd seen you with..." A shudder wracked her body as she continued, "I was so sure that the next bed I'd see would have you in it... or worse..." She buried her head in his chest then, her shoulders trembling and all he could do was hold her close, kiss the top of her head and wait. 

When she finally lifted her head and met his eyes, the look he saw there was everything he'd ever wanted to see. "So what I think you're saying is... we get through this thing, however long it lasts... then we head back to the Crossing and set up home together... you, me, maybe a couple of little ankle biters running around the place?"

Rowie was smiling, her eyes sparkling with joy rather than tears. "And a dog." 

"Well of course. The kids have got to have a dog to play with." Johnno made his voice sound offended, like he couldn't believe she'd think he'd think otherwise. "Any other demands, just so's I know what I'm getting myself into?" 

"Nope." She shook her head, that brilliant smile never wavering, not even when she blinked, frowned a little. "Did we just get engaged?" 

Johnno tilted his head, considered the conversation. "I think we did." A giggle of what sounded almost like disbelief burst from Rowie's lips and he laughed too as he pulled her into a quick kiss. "Violet's going to be thrilled," he said afterwards as she tucked herself back into his side, the words surprising another laugh out of her. "Getting engaged in her parlour... bet she's already bought the pattern for your dress. And her hat." 

"I don't care about that. Any of it." Rowie's words, quick and firm, silenced him. "I don't care about the wedding and who's there and who's not and what I wear... I just want us to have a life together. Exactly what you just described. That's all I want." 

Johnno had never been described as being the most serious of chaps, but as he looked down at her, cupped her cheek in his hand, he was very serious indeed. "Me too," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her. 

Their tea went cold in the pot and the sponge cake went uneaten but neither of them cared. 

And when they told her their news, Violet didn't either.


End file.
